Bangladeshi jute researchers are now upbeat at the prospect of commercial release of a new variety of jute -- Snow White Fibre -- following decoding of the genome of deadly fungus macrophomina phaseolina by a team of local scientists.

The constitution still has provisions that allow a large number of unelected people to govern the country, even though the caretaker government system has been scrapped over its composition of unelected persons.

The present constitutional provision for technocrat ministers is undemocratic and contrary to the fundamental principles of the original constitution of 1972, observed the Supreme Court in its full verdict on the 13th amendment.

International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday asked the prison authorities concerned to keep recently arrested Jamaat leader Maulana Abdus Subhan detained and produce him before the tribunal on September 30.

Though it is true that three candidates are vying for the Gazipur-4 parliamentary seat at the by-polls due on September 30, the real battle will be fought between an uncle and a niece -- both from the ruling Awami League.

The countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by 12 Islamist parties yesterday passed almost peacefully amid arrest of at least 53 people, including 45 in Dhaka, and torching of a BRTC bus in Chittagong.

Ten months into the killing of popular Narsingdi municipal mayor Lokman Hossain, Employment Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju yesterday visited his constituency for the first time amid heavy police security and protests from locals.

With only six days left for the Gazipur-4 by-polls, the election commission is yet to issue directives to local law enforcement agencies on launching drives against listed criminals in a bid to ensure a level playing field for the candidates.

A tiny mechanised device weighing 400 grams may soon give a new lease of life to more than 4 million people in the country who die of heart failure every year. A Mumbai hospital has brought in the technology to implant an artificial heart that takes over the functioning of the original heart and promises to double the patient's life expectancy.

Editorial

With 30,000 registered Rohingya refugees and anything between two and five lac unregistered ones in Bangladesh, the country has long been at the receiving end of all the fallout of a problem created in Myanmar. As if that was not enough, the latest wave of persecution of Rohingyas from the Rakhine state put additional strain on Bangladesh's nerves. The country finds itself between the rock and the hard place. On the one hand, we share humanitarian concern with the rest of the world, but on the other, we are resource-constrained to host any more refugees on a durable basis.

The falling trend of students' enrolment in science at secondary level of education, as found in a study, has an alarming signal for the country. That is because, the preparatory phase for higher education in science begins from the secondary level.

Sports

Pakistan provided strong evidence on Sunday during their first group match against New Zealand why they were considered top favourites in the ICC World Twenty20. First, Pakistan's top order dominated New Zealand's bowling under sunny skies in Pallekele and then their variety of bowling led by leading T20I wicket-taker Saeed Ajmal, who claimed four wickets yesterday, ensured a 13-run victory. The result made things all but clear for Bangladesh -- who now not only need to win against a formidable Pakistan on Tuesday but do so by a comfortable margin to reach the Super Eights.

The spin bowlers are the main strength in Bangladesh's bowling department, which is why their failure leaves the Tigers with little chance of making an impact on the field. Their 59-run defeat against New Zealand in their first match of the ongoing ICC World Twenty20 at the Pallekele International Stadium last Friday was no exception to that generally accepted truth. Questions had already been raised about the Bangladesh spinners' actual potency on pitches other than the slow and low variety. Bangladesh's new spin bowling coach Saqlain Mushtaq however has full faith in his charges, although he was not completely happy with the performance in the first group match. He however held the conditions responsible for the poor showing.

The Bangladesh Football Federation's initiative to increase the number of grounds inside the capital in a bid to meeting the demand of various leagues is likely to stumble due to 'financial constraint.'

Bangladesh team emerged champion in the Bhutan Amateur Golf Champion-ship which concluded at the Royal Thimpu Golf Club in Bhutan yesterday. The Bangladesh team, comprising Mohammad Dulal Hossain and Mohammad Sagar became champions while Dulal also became individual champion. Two teams from hosts Bhutan and one each from Bangladesh, India and Nepal participated in the event.

Despite their loss against Pakistan in their World T20 group match yesterday, some late hitting by New Zealand ensured their entry to the Super Eights. However, the loss makes things a lot more difficult for Bangladesh. The Tigers will have to beat an in-form Pakistani by more than 36 runs in their last group game on September 25 if they are to progress to the Super Eights.

Having lost to Australia in their World Twenty20 opener, West Indies would not have the luxury of experimenting against Ireland here on Monday, as they need a win at any cost to book a berth in the Super Eight stage.

Sachin Tendulkar was in for a pleasant surprise as West Indies legend Brian Lara paid a visit to the former's residence, in what seemed to be an impromptu meeting between two of modern day's greatest batsmen.

Ten-man Liverpool were left searching for their first Premier League win under new manager Brendan Rodgers as arch-rivals Manchester United came from behind to win 2-1 at an emotional Anfield on Sunday.

Toni Kroos and Thomas Mueller fired Bayern Munich back to the top of the Bundelsiga on Saturday with a 2-0 win at Schalke while champions Borussia Dortmund saw their 31-match unbeaten run ended by Hamburg.

Substitute Xavi Hernandez scored a late goal to set Barcelona on their way to a 2-0 win over Granada on Saturday which maintained their perfect start and sent them 11 points clear of bitter rivals Real Madrid.

Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has insisted he is on good terms with Barcelona teammate David Villa after the two players had a heated exchange of words during their 2-0 victory over Grenada on Saturday.

Imagine some political group runs an advertisement accusing a politician of misleading statements and covering up his true voting record. Instead of denouncing the attack or countering with a favorable ad, however, the candidate sues the political group for billions of dollars, launching a six-year, scorched-earth legal and public relations campaign.

Metropolitan

With only 10 percent work remaining, the peripheral road along the capital's Hatirjheel-Begunbari canals will likely be opened to the public on December 15, said State Minister for Housing and Public Works Abdul Mannan Khan yesterday.

Right to Information (RTI) Forum yesterday demanded that the government nominates a strong, credible and neutral person as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) to replace the recently retired CIC, said a press release.

People of ten villages in Mogholhat and Kulaghat unions under Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila are suffering as a bridge over the Rotnai River at Saprikhana village under the upazila has remained incomplete for years.

A mobile yesterday sentenced a man to six months' imprisonment on charge of stalking a madrasa student in Baniachang upazila of Habiganj district. Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Baniachang Debjit Sinha, also the executive magistrate, passed the order in the afternoon. The arrestee is Afzal Hossain of Bonder Bari area. Police arrested Afzal yesterday and produced him before the magistrate. After a hearing, the magistrate penalised the man.

Police arrested three alleged muggers in Chitra Bridge area of Narail on Saturday night.The arrestees are Mohiuddin, 19, son of Shahjahan of Kotakol village under Lohagara upazila, Md Habibur Rahman, 17, son of Obaidur Rahman of Bongram village under Kalia upazila of Narail, and Arif Mollik, 19, son of Md Hemayet Mollik of North Gangarampur village under Moksedpur upazila of Gopalgonj district. Sub-Inspector Manik Saha said police arrested the three while they were trying to mug a man in the area at around 8:30pm. Police also seized a knife from them, he added.

Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) recovered one shutter gun and two bullets from a mango orchard at Shaympur village under Shibganj upazila on Saturday night. Acting on a tip-off, a BGB team of Masudpur border outpost (BOP) went to the village at around 8:00pm and found the gun and bullets at the orchard. Later, BGB men handed over the gun and bullets to Shibganj Police Station and filed a general diary in this regard. On Monday last, the BGB men seized two foreign made pistols, nine bullets, three magazines from Parchouka village in the upazila and arrested an arms peddler named Shah Alam.

A police constable committed 'suicide' by shooting himself with his own pistol in Rangpur on Saturday evening. The dead, Ayub Ali, 35, was a bodyguard of SM Rashidul Haque, additional superintended of police in Rangpur. Hearing the sound of a gunshot at around 7:00pm, one of his colleagues rushed to the guards' room and found Ayub Ali lying in a pool of blood on the floor. Police recovered the body and sent it to Rangpur Medical College hospital for autopsy. A four-member committee, led by Senior ASP Abul Bashar Mohammad Zakir Hossain, was formed to investigate the incident. The other members of the committee are Taharul Islam, ASP of Rangpur, Altaf Hossain, officer-in-charge of Rangpur Kotwali Police Station and Golam Mahfizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of the Detective Branch in Rangpur.

An 11-year-old boy drowned in a pond at Mollabari village in Sarishabari upazila of the district on Saturday morning. The boy was identified as Forhad Hassain, son of Jalal Hossain of the village. He was a class IV student at a kindergarten at Boyra Bazar in the area. Locals and family sources said Farhad went to a pond near their house to take a bath at around 10:00am and drowned. Family members recovered the body from the pond at around 12:30 pm.

A betel leaf cultivator was electrocuted at his house at Siddipasha village in Abhoynagar upazila of Jessore district on Saturday night. The deceased was identified as Abdul Malek, 35. Family sources said Malek came in contact with a live electric wire while he was working at his house.

An alleged gold smuggler was arrested here yesterday morning. Acting on a tip-off, members of Rab-12 in Sirajganj arrested Abu Sufian, son of Ataur Rahman of Rambhadrapur village under Panchbibi upazila of Jaypurhat district with gold weighing 1,160 grams on Hatikumrul highway in Sirajganj. district. Rab sources said Sufian came from Dhaka in a bus. They later handed him over to Salanga Police Station.

A schoolgirl committed suicide by taking poison at Kaminidanga village under Manirampur upazila of Jessore district yesterday morning. Police said Mita Biswas, 15, a student of class IX of a local high school, took poison as her mother scolded her in the morning for not going to the school. She was rushed to the upazila health complex where the doctor declared her dead.

A man was killed by lightning at Ranibari village under Shibganj upazila of the district on Saturday evening. The deceased was identified as Kariful Islam, 40, son of Nawashad Ali of the village. Locals said Kariful was struck by lightning in front of his house at around 7:00pm. He died on the way to a clinic at Kansat.

Letters

Two photographs published side by side on the back page of the DS dated Sept 13, unmistakably provide pictorial description of how ferocious are the rowdy the BCL cadres committing atrocities on DU and RU campuses recently. It is reported that the BCL men swooped on the JCD activists who were waiting to join party programmes and assaulted them in the most barbaric fashion! They mercilessly beat them up, kicked them as if the victims were some wretched animals and even stomped on their bodies! What an ugly demonstration of hatred and intolerance!

A recent article, referring to a study by US economists, published in the “Science and Life” page of this daily, says that higher temperatures may also have contributed to political instability in the poor countries defined as those with below-median per capita income, adjusted for the purchasing power of the country's currency. It has also added that small increase in temperature may have reduced the industrial and agricultural production of poor countries. It is also shown that temperature fluctuations can have large negative impacts on poor countries; on the other hand, rich countries have so far shown no measurable economic or political consequences resulting from it.

Electricity is one of the main factors of development. Without it no country can move forward in present time. Generating electricity by coal, gas or oil is a costly process and it has many anti-environmental components. So, many countries are producing electricity by establishing nuclear power stations. Our neighbour India has some such stations too.

At a time when a minister without portfolio is sitting idle without any work, duty and responsibility but drawing huge pay and allowances, enjoying all facilities and amenities from public exchequer, there are allegations of lapses, omissions and irregularities committed by several ministers. We do not have enough fund to build Padma bridge, repair our deplorable roads and highways and operate railways. There are reports of electricity crisis and load shedding, Sonali Bank and Destiny Group scams, lack of accountability and transparency in our finance and accounts sector. We fail to understand the justification of increasing the number of ministers and state ministers from forty-five to fifty-one at the cost of sufferings of our people.

Through this letter I condemn the attacks on US ambassador and diplomats on 11th September 2012. I also protest against the film which triggered this violence and resulted in the death of 4 US diplomats. The film insulted our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). My question is, when the filmmaker was aware of the fact that such a movie could spread violence, then why did he make it in the first place? And why is it that when the Westerners hurt the beliefs of the Muslims, it becomes their freedom of expression but when the Muslims speak against the wrongs they do against other people, they (Muslims) become terrorists?

Adnan's letter on the matter published in this page on 12th. September on throttled freedom of our Members of the Parliament does not at all reconcile with the image of democracy that we bandy around as our state principle! Our elected members of the parliament can not vote with clear conscience on issues being put to vote in the House. They have no freedom of choice and belief but must toe the party line!

Our two major political parties Awami League and BNP could not come to a consensus regarding the election system yet. Our opposition is demanding election under caretaker government but our government wants to hold it under party government. Our Supreme Court has already scrapped the caretaker government provision from the constitution and declared it illegal.

After a directive of Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission the cell phone operator Airtel recently set its rate at Tk 0.06 per pulse. It implies that the subscribers have to pay Tk 0.36 per minute where their previous rate was Tk. 0.29 per minute. In calculation, it is a 24.14% hike from the previous rate.

Adulteration of foods has become the most dreadful problem in recent times. Some heinous businessmen in order to make huge profits adulterate various food items. The trend to adulterate food is increasing day by day among traders. The mere drives of the Mobile Courts to catch and fine the unscrupulous traders are not enough. The government should follow the directives of the High Court and take actions against those people under the Special Powers Act, 1974 which gives death penalty or imprisonment for life for food adulteration.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner, spent most of the past two decades under house arrest in Rangoon, thousands of miles from her husband and children in the UK. She has rarely talked about the pain of this separation.

Iran could launch a pre-emptive strike if Israel prepares to attack it, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander told the broadcaster Al-Alam on Sunday, a day after his boss warned conflict was inevitable.

Slamming Trinamool Congress, Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad yesterday said steps such as allowing FDI in retail sector, hiking diesel prices and limiting cap on domestic LPG could have been taken earlier if there was no pressure from parties like the one headed by Mamata Banerjee.

Sudan and South Sudan's leaders yesterday negotiated positions as international pressure mounts to end long-running disputes that have brought the former civil war foes to the brink of renewed conflict.

The Pakistan government yesterday distanced itself from a $100,000 bounty offered by a cabinet minister for the death of the maker of an anti-Islam film that has sparked protests across the Muslim world.

The United States has denied visas to about 20 Iranian government officials hoping to attend next week's United Nations General Assembly, including two ministers, Iran's Fars news agency reported on Saturday.

The daughter of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been arrested and jailed under a six-month sentence for "propaganda against the regime," the Tehran prosecutor's office said in a statement carried by official media yesterday.

Arts & Entertainment

With several upcoming TV plays, National Film Award winner Moushumi hardly has any time to unwind. She has performed in Partho Sarker's Eid ul Azha special one-hour play “Otopor Ek Cup Cha”, acting opposite Sajal. In the drama, Moushumi plays the role of a confident urban woman. The actress informs that she appeared in every single scene of the play -- the shooting for which was held at Uttara. Moushumi adds that she also worked with Partho Sarker during last Eid ul Fitr, in the drama “To be or not to be”.

Kolkata based Indian theatre troupe Anik Natydal staged two plays -- Rabindranath Tagore's “Tapoti” and Mikhail Shatrov's “Laal Ghashey Neel Ghora” -- on the seventh day of the Ganga-Jamuna Theatre Festival. The plays were staged at the Experimental Theatre Hall, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, on September 21.

Dhaka University Film Society is organising a three-day film festival, titled “Chalacchitre Humayun Ahmed” (Humayun Ahmed in Films), at TSC auditorium (Teachers' and Students' Centre), University of Dhaka, in memory of the recently deceased writer and filmmaker. Seven films (except the recently released “Ghetu Putra Komola”) directed by Ahmed will be screened at the festival.

Shadhona's new dance-drama, “Aye Amader Ongone”, based on Tagore's “Brikkhoropon”, is being staged today at 7:30 pm at Chhayanaut Cultural Centre in Dhaka, according to a press release. The dance direction for the production is by Amit Chowdhury and Shabbir Ahmed Khan; music direction by Nirjher Chowdhury and Rokon Emon and overall artistic direction by Lubna Marium.

Nritya Nandan, one of the leading dance Institutions of Bangladesh, along with Live Square Music Bangladesh is arranging a dance workshop on Norwegian Folk Dance, says a press release. A collaboration between Riksconcertene (Concerts Norway) and Bangladesh to come up with new ideas and thoughts in dance, the project is named "Finding new ways in dance expressions- Bangladesh and Norway". The workshop will be conducted by Ulf Arne Johannessen and Margit Myhr both very talented and accomplished dancers and musicians from Norway. The workshop will be held in Shilpakala Academy from the September 25 to September 29 from 3pm till 6pm. The workshop will end with a presentation of the outcome of the workshop on September 30 at the Public Library Shoukat Osman Memorial Auditorium at 7pm. Dancers from different dance groups are joining the workshop.

Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra-starrer Bollywood film “Barfi”, the love story of a deaf and mute boy set in the fairy-tale world of the 1970s Darjeeling Hills in West Bengal, has been chosen as India's entry to the Oscars next year in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

OP-ED

In the wake of World Bank's (WB) cancellation of its contract with the Government of Bangladesh on June 29, 2012 for $1.2 billion credit for the Padma Bridge, I wrote in these columns on July 2 that the government faced an acid-test which like any other challenge in life could be converted into a new opportunity. This in our view then and now could, however, happen only if the government shunned its typical denial syndrome and generated the courage and commitment to ensure a fully independent, credible investigation into allegations of corruption and deliver exemplary punishment, if found guilty.

Widely criticised for the government's policy paralysis, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided a week ago to kick-start the stagnating Indian economy by implementing a slew of long-pending economic reforms.